Spring suspension for vehicles.



LJ'. CHRLEY. SPRING SUSPENSlONFGR VEHICLES.

PPLICATION FILED WV/I0' 1913.

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2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 raie.

JOHN JOSEPH CHARLEY, OF MALVERN, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA.

SPRING 4SU'SZENSION FOR VEHICLES.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Patent-ed May et, ilffi.

Application filed May 10, 1913. Serial No. 766,847.

To @ZZ l111/1 om it may concern Pac it known that I, JOHN .losnrn CHAR- Lnr, a subject olf the King of England, residing at ll'lalvern, in the State of Victoria, Commonwealth of Australia, have invented a certain new and useful SpringSuspension vtor Vehicles, oi which the following 'is a specilication. w

This invention relates to improvements in a vehicle suspension for absorbing and reducing road shocks and the like, and the invention. consists in novel means for keeping` a vehicle in a normal plane with the road when passing over inequalities therein, including the use, for each wheel, of a pair ot double armed wheel or axle carrying rockers arranged in tandem in such a manner as to allow tree movement'of the wheel axles between the ends of said rockers.

The invention also comprisesjhe conibination with said rockers 'of particular arrangements ol plane controlling or normalizing springs and in certain details of construction and combinations of parts, all as hereinafter Fully described and specilically pointed out in the appended claims.

"Various embodiments oit' the invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 a side elevation of one form of construction with the axle in section. Fig. 2 is a similar view of a second form of constructitm. Figs. 3 and l are: sectional detail plan views of 'parts shown in Fig. 2. `Fig. 5 is a side elevation of a third torni of the construction. Fig. 6 is a section on an enlarged scale taken on the line A-B of Fig, 5.

Yteierring particularly to Fig. 1 or the drawings, l provide for each wheel 1 a pair ot double armed rockers or levers 2 disposed in tandem, each rocker being pivotally mounted at l upon a bracket 4 secured to the chassis or frame of the vehicle, the pivot being shown as nearer one end of the rocker than the other and the rockers being shaped to produce a substantially horizontal arm 2 and a substantially Vertical arm 2b, the former arm of each rocher at the front or lelt hand end of the vehicle being shown as extending away from the longitudinal center o1 the vehicle, while the similar arm ot each rocker at the rear of the vehicle is shown as extending towad said longitudinal center.

The free ends of' the horizontal arns of each pair of rockers 2 are interconnected by means of a member 5 which carries or supports thewheel axle 6, such member in the construction illustrated being of such. a character, viz. in the form of a laminated spring, as to yield slightly to twisting strains, and being otherwise unattached to the vehicle.

The free ends oif the vertical-arms hf'oi each pair of rochers are interconnected .by means of a rigid connection shown in the form of a rod 7, the connections between the rockers being in each ease of a pivotal or hinged character so that on the Wheel encountering an obstruction or inequality in the road surface and imparting an oscillating movement to one rocker about its pivot, similar movements will be imparted to the adjacent rocker by means of the connection 7. On each rod or connection 7, preferably adjacent each rocker, is rigidly secured a collar or disk 9 between which and an abutment 10 secured to the chassis isa coiled spring 11 encircling the rod, the latter passing loosely through said abutment.

Each pair of rockers at opposite endsfof the vehicle on the same side thereof are interconnected in such a manner that the rockers for each wheel. or pair of wheels are caused to act `equally and unitedly, this interconnection being shown as comprising a. rod 12 pivoted at one end to a downward extension 2 of the vertical arm 2b of the rear rocker of the forward pair and passing upwardly in an inclined direction, its opposite end being` pivoted to a rocking bracket 13 mounted on the chassis to which is also pivoted one end of the connecting rod 7 of the rear pair of rockers, to which rod the vertical arms 2b of said rear rockers are pivotally attached. The rod 12 is preferably in two parts connected by a screw coupling 14 for purposes of adjustment. With the construction described it will be seen that on shock being imparted to the front wheel 1 tending to lift this end of the vehicle, the horizontal arms 2a of the roekers will be oscillated upward about their pivots, this movement being in unison for a pair owing to the connection 7, and that the said oscillation of the front pair of rockers will be transmitted to the rear pair of rockers through traction exerted on the connecting rod 12, oscillating the horizontal arms of said rear pairdownward about their pivots and tending to raise the rear end of the vehicle to an extent equal to that of the front end, thus keeping the vehicle in a. normal plane with the road surface, the springs 1.1 having a restraining eect on the action of the rockers and preventing the chassis from getting abnormally out of plane with 'the road. These springs may consequently be termed normaliaing7 or plane controlling7 springs and are thus hereinafter referred to. f

Referring to the construction shown in Figs. 2 to 4, I still provide for each wheel two rockers 2 disposed in tandem, but the pivotal points 3 of said rockers are located close together and the rockers themselves are geared together by forming the adjacent ends of the rockers as toothed segments 15 which intermesh as shown so that the movements of one rocker are correspondingly imparted to the other. In this construction it will be seen that the longer arms 2a of the rockers extend in opposite directions and the ee ends thereof are interconnected by the axle-carrying member 5 also shown in the form of a laminated spring, and that it is necessary to provide only one rocker of a pair with a vertical arm 2b for transmission of rocker movement to the connections eX- tending to another pair of rockers. In the construction under consideration this connection is in the form of a thrust rod 16 and to provide :for differences in plane between the front and rear of the vehicle due to the usual practice of making the former nar- `rower than the latter, said rod may be in two parts having bifurcated ends 17 connected by means of a bolt or pin 18 which is supported by a swinging hanger 19 suspended from the chassis. The normalizing or plane controlling springs 11 are disposed between vertical members 2O extending upward from the 'rocker arms 2fL and are in compression, thus tending to return said arms to normal. The operation of this form of construction is substantially similar to that of Fig. 1; thus on the front wheel receiving a shock, rocker arms 2a are nscillated upward in unison due to intermeshing segments 15 and the rear rocker of the front pair transmits this movement through arm 2" through rod 16 as a thrust to arm 2b of the rear pair' of rockers, thus moving the arms 2a thereof downward and imparting an upward movementV to the chassis at this i end, the springs l1 acting as above described with reference to Fig. 1.

Figs. 5 and G show a still further form of construction in which the tandem rockers 2 are in themselves made resilient, that is to say, the horizontal arms 2Hthereof are so formcdfbcing shown in the form of laminated springs, which are secured as by shackles 27 to the vertical arms'2" of the rockers which latter arms are pivoted at 3 to the bracket 4 secured tothe chassis, said "nection 29 above all the necessary clearance to the rockers one in relation to the other also permits of the lower rocker being free to work under the frame, and a further advantage is that owing to the spring arm 2a nearest the transverse center of the vehicle being sensibly.

lower than the other spring arm 2", the twisting strain is considerably reduced when Aone wheel encounters a road inequality, than if the inner spring arm were higher or even level with the outer spring arm. For this reason it is desirable that the rocker arms be kept as low as possible and to obtain this effect it is preferably to connect the free end of one of the spring rocker arms 28L to a connection 28 below the axis of the axle 6, and the free end ofthe companion arm to a consaid axis, the spring arms extending rearwardly to .their 'connection with the arms 2h Ain as nearly ahorizontal direction as practicable. The aforesaid connections 28 and 29 at the front of the vehicle are preferably in one piece of angular formation as shown and secured to the ordinary seat provided on the axle 6. This connection will also have the necessary flanges or bosses 30 t0 produce the usual hinged joints in order that the spring arms 2"L may be free to work. Bypivoting ,the rockers one outside and one more or less inside the chassis as described, the use of special through transverse connections is dispensed with except in extreme cases. i

The vertical arms 2b of each pair of rockers are interconnected by means comprising arms 30a, 31, and a bar 32, the bar 32 being connected to a pull rod 34 in two parts connected by a screw union 35. By this method of interconnecting the rockers of a pair and the pairs between themselves (Fig. 5), with the rod 34 suliciently rigid to resist all bending strains that may be ocv casioned by one rocke of a pairunder unforeseen conditions being called upon to work more than its fellow, both spring arms or rockers of a pair work synchronously and evenly. The normalizing and plane controlling spring 11 for each vpair of rockers is disposed between a horizontal arm 36 on the rocker and an abutment 37 which may form an extension of the aforesaid bracket 4, this spring being in compression# One or both of the spring rocker arms 2 may extend beyond its support on its arm 2b and form a plane controlling spring, the lower spring-arm being shown as so extended in the drawing at 38, and in addition to this feature I may provide, between the which may be mounted as end of said spring extension and the chassis, a. further spring 39 to assist the plane con? trolling or normalizing action. At the left of Fig. 5 this spring is held between two abutments 40, one secured to a bolt 4l pivoted to the chassis and the other to a forked member 42 pivoted to the end of the spring extension 38. At the right hand end of said figure the spring 39 is held between an abutment constituted by a pivoted hanger 43 suspended from the chassis and an arm 44 extending vrearward from the rocker, these two devices beingl alternatives of one another. The operation of .this form of construction is .in all respects identical to the constructions described with reference to Figs. 1 and 2.

The constructions shown in Figs. l, 2 and 5 are particularly adapted for use with the through-axle type of vehicle and may be readily applied to vehicles of known or-existing kinds.

In the type of `vehicle in which the wheels are mounted independently of each other, I prefer to use solid or rigid rockers hereinbefore described. In the case of both resilient and rigid rockers the systems above described admit of single rockers being used at one end of the vehicle in conjunction'l with double rockers at the other end thereof.

Again, detail modifications of the' various constructions herein described may be adopted.without departing from the spirit of the invention, for example, the vertical arms of the rockers may be directed either' upward or downward from the pivots, the horizontal arms may the longitudinal center of the vehicle, and the connecting member between the front and rear pairs of rockers may be inclined or horizontal according to requirements.

' each pair extend toward or away rom What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. In a. vehicle suspension, the combination with a chassis and running wheels, of double armed rockers pivoted to said chassis, one pair for each wheel disposed in tandem, an axle carrying element supported between said rockers permitting Jree movement of the axle between ends of said rockers, a separate and independent resilient plane controlling or normalizing element located above the pivots of and in operative connection with of rockers, and connecting means between the rockers of one wheell and the rockers of another wheel at the same side of the vehicle for transferring shock from one pair of rockers to the other.

2. In a vehicle suspension, the combination with a chassis and running wheels, of double armed rockers of a resilient character pivoted to said chassis, one pair for each wheel disposed'in tandem, an aXle carrying element supported between said rockers permitting free movement of the axle between ends of said rockers, a separate and independent resilient plane controlling or normalizing element in operative connection with each pair of rockers and disposed adjacent to said rockers and above the pivots thereof; and connecting means between the rockers of one wheel and the rockers of another wheel at the same side of the vehicle for transferring shock from one pair of rockers to the other.

In witness whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two witnesses.

JOHN JOSEPH CHARLEY. Witnesses:

VINTON H. PARKER, ARTHUR T. WAYHORN. 

